I’ve got two kids with iPhones and want to keep an eye on where they are after school and on weekends. I’ve enabled location sharing but it seems flaky-what’s the best way to set up family safety iPhone tracking so it updates reliably and I get alerts?
Hey Allison, good news — Apple’s built-in stuff actually works pretty well here without needing any third-party app. Make sure everyone’s in the same Family Sharing group (Settings → your name → Family Sharing) and use the Find My app — that’s genuinely the most reliable location option on iPhone and updates pretty frequently when their phones have signal/battery.
For the “flaky” issue, the usual culprits are: kid’s phone has low battery, Location Services is set to “While Using” instead of “Always” for Find My, or they’ve got Background App Refresh turned off — worth checking those settings on their devices directly.
If you want actual alerts when they arrive/leave places (like school or home), Find My has location notifications built in — tap their name → Notifications → and set up arrival/departure alerts for saved locations, no extra app needed. 